Now that we've said goodbye to December, it's once again time to take a look at the month's best new apps. Of course having reached January, we've also started a new year, and our full look at 2012's best new apps and games will be ready shortly. That being said, December 2012 had plenty to offer. In the interest of saving our readers some time, and possibly expense, we've rounded up five of the very best apps to hit the Play Store in the last month.

Google has really gotten the stock Android keyboard spruced up in recent versions of the OS. Of course, it's still a limited experience lacking in the bells and whistles of some third-party solutions. Speaking of bells and whistles, the new Kii Keyboard has more tweaks and settings than you'll believe.

Kii takes some of the most popular features from the established keyboards. It has swipe input like the Swype keyboard, word prediction like SwitfKey, and a split layout for tablets like you get in several other apps.

Everyone's favorite mind-reading keyboard, SwiftKey, just received an update that brings a handful of new languages (Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Hindi, Hinglish, Irish, Macedonian, Latin American Spanish, and Tagalog), as well as improved language pack downloads, improved key layouts for some keyboards, general bug fixes, and a split keyboard layout for "normal-sized" devices. Horray for making things better!

As if that's not enough, though – the keyboard is also on sale for the holidays.

I'm going to do my best to make it through this article without making a Portal 2 reference, but this new SwiftKey feature is not making it easy on me. After recently announcing Flow, the Swype-like gesture input method, someone inside SwiftKey HQ thought to themselves "Well, you know, this is great and all, but man, what's with all this raising-my-finger nonsense? So inefficient!" So now the company is demoing Flow Through Space.

A nice perk for Android users is an array of other software keyboards. Don't like stock? Don't sweat it. There are tons of others to choose from. Depending on your typing style, there is probably one to fit your needs. Some users like Swype, which allows you to slide your fingers across the keyboard instead of tapping each letter individually. Or there's SwiftKey, which has the ability to read your mind thanks to its incredibly intuitive prediction engine.

SwiftKey has issued an incremental update to its apps for Android phones and tablets this morning, headlined by the addition of continuous voice typing (dictation mode) and new themes.

Voice dictation support is available only for handsets running Android 4.0 or above, and can be accessed by long-pressing the comma. The two new themes are Sky (blue) and Fuchsia (pink) which, should you desire your keyboard to have a little more pop, pile onto an already large library of options.

Swiftkey 3 recently arrived on the Play Store, and not too long afterwards, the company has posted a statement on its blog letting us know that the app is currently the best-selling paid app on the Play Store. Not too bad, SwiftKey! Of course, the biggest challenge is ahead, as Google announced yesterday that, from Jelly Bean onwards, the default Android keyboard will attempt to predict your next word. Which smacks just a little of SwiftKey's pitch.

TouchType Ltd., the creators of what is arguably the best predictive keyboard available for Android, have just announced SwiftKey 3, along with a separate solution made specifically for medical professionals – SwiftKey Healthcare.

SwiftKey 3, which has – as of tonight – finally come out of beta, is on sale in celebration of its launch, available from the Play Store for just $1.99 today. SwiftKey Healthcare, for those wondering, is a new keyboard, pre-loaded with tons of medical terminology and tools to enhance medical note taking in the healthcare industry.

In the world of software keyboards, Swype has always been the odd man out. In this case, however, that's not necessarily a bad thing, because people who love Swype are emphatic about it. With the latest beta, Swype is now set to take on the entire world of software keyboards, as it has transformed into "four kinds of keyboard," thanks to Nuance.

How is this a four-in-one option? Firstly, you have the traditional Swype method of, well...

SwiftKey is a fan favorite keyboard replacement for Android. Enthusiasts, though, know there's always a better SwiftKey out there. The current beta, named SwiftKey 3, is currently being put through its paces by the community, and yet another iteration has rolled out that brings some marked improvements to the input alternative.